Five Exercises You Can Do On The Treadmill To Stay In Shape

Posted by admin

May 21, 2012

1. Fitness Walking

Fitness walking is a healthy energetic walking pace. If you don’t like running, but you want to enjoy the benefits of aerobic activities, this is a very good replacement. While you do the fitness walk, you activate most of the upper body muscles, such as the upper back, shoulders and the abs, but you also workout the thighs, hips, and buttocks. For this exercise, the average speed is 3-3.5 mph.

2. Incline Walking

I’m sure you’ve noticed too that walking up the hill can be exhausting and (literally) breathtaking. However, it is also a powerful method to do cardio exercise, without running. An advantage of treadmills is that they can support incline, thus simulate hills. Most treadmills have up to 12% incline, and you can alternate the incline value for equal time segments for 30 minutes, at your own walking pace. Incline trainers can support up to 40% incline.

I recommend choosing preset Hill/Mountains workouts that are usually integrated in the treadmills’ consoles. They automatically change the incline of each segment, and you control your speed.

3. Jogging

For those of you who like running, but not that exhausting, long-distance kind, choose to jog. Jogging can be done at a moderate speed—a little higher than fitness walking—and in sessions of 30 minutes for four days a week. Each person has his or her own jogging speed, so it’s up to you to choose the speed intensity value where you feel comfortable. Remember that, while jogging, you should be able to have a conversation with a partner next to you and not feel that you’re losing your breath.

4. Running

If you enjoy running, but you don’t have the endurance to keep up a fast pace for a long time, you can split those 30 minutes in two running sessions a day: 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. The speed for each session depends on you only. There is no minimum or maximum speed, although, as reference, running one mile in 9-10 minutes is more than enough to keep you fit.

5. Interval Training

If you don’t like jogging because it’s too monotonous, try doing intervals on the treadmill. Intervals alternate high and low speeds and are wonderful for the body. You not only build speed, endurance and strengthen the main muscle groups, but you also do efficient cardio exercise.

Intervals are one of the preset workouts available on almost all treadmills. Choose one of the preset workouts from the console to train. The preset workouts automatically control the speed for each segment, and you get to choose from different levels of intensity.

Tips & Tricks, Workouts

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